I was curled up in a pile of bags when I heard noise coming from the end of the alleyway. Shifting slowly, I saw the bullies attacking a boy with hair the color of sunlight. Frustration flooded me, and before I could stop it, my powers shot out, hitting those who always attacked me.
Immediately, the four of them turned on each other, ignoring the boy who staggered backwards. He looked at them with wrinkles between his eyes, seeing them knock each other down. The final one looked around, and ran when he realised that he was the only one left.
Footsteps came towards me, and I burrowed back into my sanctuary.
"Did you do that?"
Looking up, I nodded to the sun-haired boy, "Uh-huh."
He held out his hand, "My name is Jack Atlas. What's yours?"
"I don't know. I can't read it."
His hand wrapped around my wrist, "Then we should go to Martha. She can read anything."
My free hand grabbed my pouch of stuff as he pulled me further down the alley. A sneeze escaped me, and he put his jacket over my shoulders, "It's a good thing we're going to Martha's. She can make you feel better."
"Jack, have you noticed that she follows you everywhere?"
I peeked around the corner to see Martha looking down at Jack, who looked at the ground as he nodded, "Yeah. Why does she do that?"
She chuckled and crouched in front of him, "Because you might have been the first person to show her kindness. She looks up to you. But she needs to stay in the house for a couple days. Do you mind staying here with her instead of wandering around?"
He nodded, "Okay. If it helps her recover faster."
"I'm sorry Jack."
Both of them turned to me, and Jack ran over to me, "It's okay, Yusei. Martha can teach us how to play some games while you get better."
Martha chuckled as she smiled at the two of us, "I'm glad that Jack finally met his match. Yusei, you are everything I ever hoped for if I had a daughter of my own."
"Even my magic?"
She pulled me into a hug, "Your powers are as much a part of you as your hair. If you didn't have them, you wouldn't be the same Yusei. So, yes, I love you with your magic."
One day we were walking down the street when we saw some other kids dueling on the ground. Jack walked forward to watch, and I inched up behind him, watching around his shoulder. One of the kids playing had hair that was bright orange, and he kept whispering to the older kids who would read his cards to him, "Jack?" I whispered, "Why is he doing that?"
"He can't read the cards, just like how you used to not know how to read."
I looked over at the boy, "Oh, so he's like me?"
"Yeah."
When the duel finished, most of the kids drifted away. I slowly emerged from behind Jack and walked over to the kid, "Do you live on the streets?"
The boy looked up, "Yeah, do you?"
"Not anymore, a nice lady took me in. She will take you in too!"
His eyes lit up as Jack joined us, "Really? You promise?"
Jack held out his hand, "My name is Jack, and this little ball of friendliness is Yusei."
"I'm not little, Jack!"
The boy took Jack's hand, "My name is Jonathan Hoagan, but everyone calls me Crow 'cause I like Blackwing cards."
Crow smiled at us, "So, when do we go?"
I walked quickly down the street, trying to not draw attention to myself. It was a small comfort knowing that at the age of twelve I still looked like a boy. This was the first time that I had gone anywhere on my own, due to my powers and my anxiety, but I had to, because I had to get Jack a birthday present.
As I turned a corner, someone slammed me into the wall, and I realized how much danger I was in.
A man towered over me, looking into my eyes, "Well, a little boy out for a stroll. Do you have any cards little boy?"
Panic pulsed inside of me as my mind raced faster than a cop car, trying to figure out how to get free before I hurt him like I hurt other people. I pushed myself even closer to the wall, taking deep breaths as much as I could in my fear.
He was yanked away from me, and I sunk to the ground. I watched a boy with hair the color of paper wrestling with the man who had been attacking me. Despite his best efforts, he was slowly losing ground to the much larger adult. I reached out with my mind, locating the two most familiar minds to me. I pushed my fear into both of them, hoping that they would be able to find me.
Within seconds, the two of them ran out of a nearby alley and helped pummel the guy to the ground. The second the man was down, Crow turned to the other guy, "Thanks for defending Yusei."
Jack ignored the new kid, choosing to march over to me instead, "What did I say about going out alone, Yusei? You still have a hard time controlling your powers!"
I held out my present, "I wanted to get something for your birthday. And I found a cool card that I thought you would like. It's called Red Dragon Archfiend."
He gently took it from me, "You got me a Synchro monster?"
I nodded, and he pulled me with him as he walked to the other two, "Yeah, thanks for saving our sister."
The boy seemed surprised, "She doesn't look like a girl."
"That's the point. She's safer this way. My name's Jack."
"I'm Crow, and Yusei is the shy one."
The boy nodded, "I'm Kiryu Kyosuke."
Kiryu walked into our hangout, "What if we took down the duel gangs, and made Satellite safer?"
I looked up from the duel disk that I was fixing, "You want me to go in public when I'm upset?"
He looked at us, "Yusei would learn how to be human and control her powers, Crow could make this place safer for the kids, and Jack, you get to beat people. Not only that, but since we are stuck here, we might as well get something useful done."
Crow looked at us, "He's got a point, just like he always does."
I spun a screwdriver around in my hand as I shrugged, "I can try, but if I lose control too many times, I'm going back to Martha's."
Jack pushed himself off the wall where he was relaxing, "I am willing to help you Kiryu. When do we start?"
"Tomorrow. And we are going to call ourselves the Enforcers, unless one of you can come up with a good name."
I pushed the duel disk aside, "I think it's fine, but don't the other teams have uniforms?"
Crow piped up, "We'll also need some way to stop them from dueling after we beat them."
Kiryu picked up a vest I had thrown on the ground earlier, "We all have vests like this, so I guess our uniforms will be these with black fingerless gloves."
Muttering, I leaned my chair against the wall, "I hate gloves. They get in the way of inventing."
He looked over from where he was talking to the guys about bands around the upper arms to look at me, "Speaking of inventing, can you whip up something that disables duel disks?"
"Fine, since I'm the only one who knows the difference between a circuit board and a circuit breaker."
I pulled out my tool box and got to work as the guys designed uniforms.
I managed to catch the leader's duel disk with the shackle, "Are you going to behave and duel like a man?"
He smirked, "Not a chance."
Without hesitation, he jumped over the gap between buildings. As his feet hit the ground, he simultaneously pulled off his duel disk, and yanked me over the edge.
A scream ripped out of me as his duel disk started to follow me down.
My arm almost left its socket as something wrapped around my spare wrist. I looked up to see Kiryu holding another clamp that was on my left arm, "Not going to let you fall, Yusei. Not in a million years!"
The bars bent under his weight, almost sending him falling with me, "Let go! I'm not worth dying for-"
"Shut up and start climbing!"
I struggled to climb, even with Kiryu and Crow pulling me up. As I collapsed onto the roof, we all heard a bang.
Apparently someone was stupid enough to sit around and not run until I was safe. But that gave Jack enough time to beat him to the door.
No one wants a door kicked open by Jack to hit them in the face.
I sat cross legged on the floor of Blitz' hangout, working on Rally's duel disk when she ran in yelling, "Kiryu attacked Security!"
Bolting to my feet, I gathered up my equipment, "Has he completely lost it? Nevermind, Rally, go get Jack. I'll get Crow!"
We both ran off in separate directions, and I met one of the kids that sometimes hung out with Crow, "Tell Crow that Kiryu attacked Security and I'm looking for him."
They ran off and I hurried to our old HQ, hoping that he would be hiding there.
Sirens filled the air, growing louder as I got closer to the place that had been my home for years. I peered around a corner, only to see the hideout completely surrounded by patrol cars and duel runners. Through one of the windows, I could clearly see Kiryu laughing.
Quietly, I slipped into a nearby building, climbing to the third floor. I propped myself on the empty window ledge, took a deep breath, and threw myself through a window of the hideout. Rolling to my feet, I could hear Kiryu yelling, "The Enforcers will take you down, just like we took down all of the duel gangs!"
I dragged him away from the window, "No we won't! We are only here to stop you from doing something you'll regret when you come to your senses!"
He looked at the other two, who had joined us and glowered, "Fine then."
Both of his arms launched out, shoving me to the ground while he raced out the door. I rolled back to my feet, racing after him, "Come back here you idiot!"
My feet pounded through the growing puddles, and I ignored the falling rain as I tore after Kiryu through the streets. I rounded one corner, and my stomach lurched as I saw the body at his feet.
Kiryu's eyes locked on me, and something snapped in them. Next thing I knew, we were wrestling on the soggy ground, and rolling over each other trying to get the upper hand.
The sirens grew closer as we fought, and I finally pinned him to the ground long enough for Jack and Crow to find us. They dragged him into a nearby building as I explained what he had done to the Security officer. Both looked as disgusted as I felt.
Sector Security vehicles surrounded the building we were in, with the customary demands. I looked over at my brothers and best friend before walking to the door, "I'll be back."
I walked out right to the head officer, "I am the leader of the Enforcers."
A massive smile filled his face, and he laughed while slapping a hand down on my shoulder, "Nice try young man, but we know that your leader has white hair."
Crap.
Screams and insults started coming from behind me. I turned around to see Kiryu being dragged by multiple officers towards the awaiting transport carrier. He twisted around like a snake, and nearly escaped their grasp a few times.
They finally got him to the car, and he noticed me watching. He lunged towards me, screaming at the top of his lungs, "How dare you betray us! You'll burn just like-"
He was picked off his feet, and heaved into the transport. Immediately upon hitting the floor of it, he started to scramble back towards me, just to have the doors slam in his face. The transport drove away, being trailed by the other vehicles, and I ran to Jack, crying, "What happened to him? Why would he do something like that?"
"I don't know, Yusei."
My memory was shattered by the hand of the Earthbound Immortal descending towards me as Kiryu's maniacal laughter filled my head.
A/N: Thanks to Lets-Go-To-Vermont and PipeDream for reviewing on the original version of this chapter.
